Trenton library panel's proposals are overdue

Martin Griff / The Times FILE PHOTO: The Cadwalader Branch of The Trenton Library on Thursday, July 15, 2010.

TRENTON — Plans to reopen the shuttered branches of the city’s library system appear less substantive than they did last month when Mayor Tony Mack pulled the plug on a proposal for the nonprofit organization CityWorks to assume control of the East Trenton branch.

CityWorks, as a part of the East Trenton Collaborative network of nonprofits that work to improve the area, had proposed turning the East Trenton branch into a learning center and public research facility, but in a memo released shortly after the plan went public Mack squelched the plan and said he had formed “a special library advisory team.”

According to the memo, “The library advisory team and the city agree that we must keep all four libraries under city direction.”

But in a response to an Open Public Records Act request for information received by the Times yesterday, the city could not provide any plans or other documentation related to the advisory team’s actions.

The library branches were closed last year in the wake of budget cuts, forcing the system to consolidate to the main location on Academy Street.

According to the OPRA response, the advisory team comprises several of Mack’s closest confidants and other city officials. It includes mayoral aide and acting business administrator Anthony Roberts, acting public works director Harold Hall, recreation coordinator Sonya Wilkins, and acting inspections director Cleveland Thompson.

The team has met only once, in January of 2011, the OPRA response said.
Asked several weeks ago to name the members of the team, city spokeswoman Lauren Ira said in an e-mail, “The mayor’s library advisors are both city employees and community residents who are volunteers that provided recommendations to the administration. When the administration asked for their service, it did not get their consent to publicly share their names, and for that reason cannot reveal their identities.”

The team does not include any officials from the city’s library system or any members of its board of trustees.

“I am not on that committee, nor is any member of my board of trustees or our staff,” library director Kimberly Matthews said. “I have no specific knowledge of the committee.

“We have not heard from City Hall about any specific plans to reopen the branches although we continue to hope that will be a possibility,” Matthews said. She also said she would be amenable to any plans to reopen the buildings as community centers.

North Ward Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson, who said she asked the mayor to be included on the advisory team after she heard about it last month, said she hasn’t heard another word about it.

“I’m beginning to think it’s actually nonexistent. They’re not getting back to me and they’re not asking me to attend meetings,” she said. “I know nothing about it. I’ve been asking and waiting, but I don’t know. I can’t tell you anything.”

Ira did not return messages asking for comment yesterday.

In addition to CityWorks’ proposal, the Catholic Youth Organization had proposed last year leasing the library’s Skelton Branch on South Broad Street to expand its preschool programs.

“We really are very excited about the notion that the buildings that housed the former branches would be used as community centers,” Matthews said. “We loved those buildings and we cared about them with great passion for many, many decades and we hope the city can find a use for them after their life as a library.”

In the meantime, she said, Skelton has been subject to at least one break-in since it closed.

In the absence of any concrete plans from the city government, officials from CityWorks said they would relish the opportunity for their proposal to get a second look.

“If it’s an indication that they’re unable to secure either the financial interest or they’ve determined they do not have the capacity to reopen the four libraries, then we would be very interested in revisiting the proposal to reopen East Trenton library.”